Savings-bank



Z. M. SPEER.

SAVINGS BANK.

APPLICATION HLED mm. H. 1915. nzuswzn FEB. 9.1920.

Patented Oct 26, 1920.

Invc rufior Zeno M Wjbfiruesses UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE.

ZENO M. SPEEB, F MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNEASSIGNMENTS, T0 SPEEBPROSEFEL'I CALENDAR BANK, INC., OF MILWAUKEE,WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION OF WISCONSIN.

SAVINGS-BAN K.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 26, 1920.

Application filed Ianuary 14, 1915, Serial No. 2,188. Renewed February9, 1920. Serial No. 357,350.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Znivo M. SPEER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State ofWisconsin, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inSavings- Banks, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, andexact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawin formina part of this speclfication.

y invention relates to savings banks and is concerned with a devicewhich I term a calendar bank. The underlying idea is the provision of aperpetual calendar which is automatically kept up to date by the regulardeposit of coins, mechanism being insertion of coins of the provided sothat the insertion of the coins automatically accomplishes the shiftingof the calendar from day to day.

The purpose of the invention is to encourage the habit of regular andsystematic saving, and with this in view I utilize the idea of theperpetual calendar which is shifted from day to day, and provide apositive me chanical connection between this calendar and the entry wayto a coin-deposit compartment, the arrangement being such that thecalendar can be advanced only by the roper denomination. In this way, inor er to keep up the calendar, it becomes necessary for one to depositcoins of the proper denomination regularly and not only do I thusprovide a useful, perpetual calendar operated in this unique way, but Ialso provide means for constantly reminding the owner of such a bankwhether or not and to what extent he is in arrears in his savingsaccount.

It is well known that banking institutions frequently adopt the systemof encouraging savings by providin their depositors with banks, smallportab e devices, the banking institution itself holding the key, theidea being that the depositor will go to the bank at intervals todeposit his savings thus accumulated in the hand bank, and the bankcashier, who holds the key, will open the bank upon the depositorsvisit, to remove the contents therefrom, locking the bank and returningit to the depositor for use for another eriod.

In or er that my device may effectively play a part in such a systemprovide it wit a ock and key, and, if desired, the

calendar may be provided with, certain red letter days upon which thedepositor will be reminded to make his regular visit to the bank for thepurpose of depositing his savin t is a further object of my invention toprovide a device of the character described above which will be ofsimple construction, of attractive design, and capable of economicalmanufacture, and some of the more specific of the appended claims aredirected to features of arrangement and construction which are uniqueand useful.

My invention will be clearly understood by reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of the calendar bank of myinvention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view with the front portion of the casingremoved and with other parts broken away so as to clearly reveal thestructure; and

Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken on the plane of the line33 of Fig. 2 and looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

i The housing of the device comprises a main base portion 4, which mayconveniently be made in the form of a casting, this base portion beingprovided at the front with an upwardly-extending flange 5, and at therear with an upwardly-extending flange 6. casing 7, which mayconveniently be made in the form of a stamping, is secured to the basein any suitable manner, referably in such a way as to make it difiicu tto open the bank without actually having a key for the lock thereto. Aremovable base portion 8 is provided, this removable portion beingdisposed to the rear of the base portion 4 and 'heing supported by anintegral tenon 9, which fits snugly in a corresponding groove runninglengt wise in the rear of the main base portion 4. The opposite side ofthe removable base portion 8 is provided with a groove 10, into which abead 11 stamped inwardly from the back wall of the casing 7 fits. Itwill be understood that the casing 7 has sufficient flexibility to'permit of the removal of the base ortion 8 when the lock is removed, aswi l presently be described. The removable base portion 8 is providedwith one or more staples 12, which extend through corresponding slots inthe back wall of the casing 7 and, upon the outside of the casing, areengaged by one or more padlooks 13, for which a key 14 is provided.

A partition 15 is secured to the upwardlyextending flange 6 on the mainbase portion 4, by means of screws 1616, this partition extendingupwardly for a short distance and then extending forwardly to the frontwall of the casing 7. This partition separates the coin-depositcompartment from the compartment which contains the calendar mechanism,as will presently be described.

In front of the partition 15 and at each end of the main base portion 4a standard 17 is provided, and a shaft 18, running lengthwise of thestructure, is mounted in these standards, as clearly illustrated inFigs. 2 and 3. The shaft 18 is preferably stationarily mounted.

A plurality of wheels, upon which configurations are placed, and whichare preferably of uniform size, are mounted to rotate upon the shaft 18.Thus I have shown the month-wheel 19, the tens day wheel 20, and theunit-day wheel 21. Each of these wheels has secured theretoconcentrically a ratchet wheel 22, and the month-wheel is prevented fromhaving any undue longrt dinal movement by means of the pins 23-23, whilethe day wheels, separatedby a washer 24, are prevented from having anyundue longitudinal movement upon the shaft by mean of the pins 25-25.The shaft- 18 is held in the standards 1717 by means of pins 2626.

At a point in lateral alinement with each of the ratchets 22, the top ofthe rear flange 6 is provided with a recess 27 in which twoforwardly-extendin springs 28 and 29 are secured b means of a screw 30.The spring 28 exten straightforwardly and engages the teeth of theratchet in such a way as to permit counter-clockwise rotation thereof(viewing the ratchet as is Fig. 3), but preventing rotation in theopposite direction. The spring 29 extends forwardly and then upwardlyand then downwardly, as indicated at 31, where it engages under a lug 32carried by the reciprocating pawl 33, the lug 32 being L-shaped, .as i1ustrated in Fig. 2, inorder to revent the spring 29 from becoming disloged. At it lower end the pawl 33 engages the teeth of the ratchet 22,and at its upper end the pawl is provided with an extension 34, whichextends throu h an opening 35 in the forwardlyextending portion of thepartition 15.

It will now be understood that there are several units, each comprisin awheel, a ratchet, springs, and pawl, as as just been described.Dlrectly'over each of the openings 35 there i provided a coin-guide 36,being secured by means of a. flange 37 to the back of the partition 15.The end of the extension 34 travels in this coin-guide, as illustratedin Figs. 2 and 3, and is turned at right angles and slightly dished soas to be positively engaged by the coin which is pushed through theassociated coinguides. Each of the coin-guides is made of such height asto exactly accommodate the particular coin for which it is intended, andin this way as a coin, for instance as illustrated in dotted lines inFig. 3, is pushed through the coin-guide, it will engage the end of thepawl 33 and force it downwardly into the position shown in dotted linein Fig. 3. This will advance the corresponding ratchet 22 the distanceof one tooth, and any backlash will be prevented by the operation of thespring 28.

It will be seen that the coin-guides are directed directly into thecoin-deposit compartment and therefore, after the coins have passedthrough the coin-guides, they will drop down into the compartmentprovided therefor and may later be removed by the removal of the lockand the removal of the base portion 8. After the coin has passed throughthe coin-guide, the pawl 33 will return to its normal position, that is,its uppermost position, due to the influence of the spring 29, and thearrangement will be set for the introduction of another coin. The normalposition of the pawl 33 is determined by the engagement of a shoulder 38which engages the underside of the forwardly-extending portion of thepartition 15. In order to properly guide the pawl 33, that portion ofthe artition 15 which is stamped out to form t e opening 35, is turneddownwardl into vertical position, as illustrated in Fig. 3, and theforward side of the pawl 33 rests against this downwardly-extendingportion.

Each of the coin-guides 36 registers with a slot 39 in the front wall ofthe casing 7, and openings 40, 41 and 42 are also rovided in the frontwall of the casing so as to display the characters on the wheels. Thus,in the opening 40, either January, February, March or April is displayedthrough the opening, while through the opening 41 the tens digits aredisplayed. The units digits are displayed through the openin 42.

It will appear of course that other units comprising the wheel, ratchet,awl, etc., can be provided to display the ay of the week and the car,etc., if desired, but I have deemed what I have shown to be suflicientto disclose my invention, it bein understood that providing other whee sis purely a matter of duplication.

The various coin-slots and coin-guides are made of different sizes toaccommodate coins of different denominations. For instance, in UnitedStates money, it might be neteneo arranged, as the relative sizes areherein shown, to require a nickel to operate the units wheel, a' dime tooperate the tens wheel, and a quarter to operate the monthwheel.Obviousl any arrangement may be provided for ifierent denominations ofcoins without departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope ofwhich is set forth in the appended claims.

The mouth-wheel is provided with twelve teeth one for each month, itbeing obvious that ior each actuation of the correspondigig pawl 33 thewheel will be advanced su ciently to display the succeeding month. Thetens wheel is provided with twelve teeth, and there are three sets ofnumbers on this wheel1, 2, 3, and a blank. The units' wheel has tenteeth and the numerals run from 1 to 9 and zero.

Of course it will be obvious that other openings may be provided intothe savings compartment, for instance, a coin-slot not affecting any ofthe calender mechanism, and also an aperture for bills.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In combination, a base, a housing mounted thereon, a partitionforming a deposit compartment, a plurality of coin-guides eading intosaid deposit compartment, means for locking and unlocking saidcompartment, a shaft mounted on the opposite side of said partition, apluralit of wheels mounted upon said shaft, each w eel having a ratchetthereon, an anti-backlash spring mounted upon said base and engagin eachratchet, a reciprocating pawl carrie by a spring also engaging eachratchet and having a part disposed in proximity to the associated coinguides, the passage of coins fitting said coin-guides therethroughmoving said awl the distance of one tooth, one of said w eels having thesuccessive months inscribed thereon, another having tens digits andanother having units digits, and means in said casing through which theinscriptions on said wheels may be successively displayed.

2. In a savings bank, a casing having a plurality, of coin receivingdevices, a corresponding lurality of indicating devices each of w ich issupplied with successive calendar indicia to constitute in selectedassociation a visible calendar reading, independent advancing mechanismforeach indicatin device, and an actuating device associate with each ofsaid coin receiving devices to be operated by the insertion of a cointherein and independently mechanically connected with one of saidadvancing mechanisms, said coin receiving devices having diflerentcharacteristics peculiar to coins of respectively diflerentdenominations, and said indicating devices being thus respectivelyadvanced as a perpetual calendar by the eriodical insertion of coins ofthe proper enominations in the respective coin receiving devices.

3. In a savings bank, a casing having a plurality of coin receivingdevices, a corresponding lurality of indicating devices each of w ich issupplied with successive calendar'indicia to constitute in selectedassociation a visible calendar reading independent advancin mechanismfor each indicatin device, an an actuating device associate with each ofsaid coin receiving devices to be operated by the insertion of a cointherein and independentl mechanicall connected with one of sai advancingmec anisms, said coin receiving devices having different characteristicspeculiar to coins of respectively different denominations, and saidindicating devices being thus respectively advanced as a perpetualc'alendar by the periodical insertion of coins of the roperdenominations in the respective coin receiving devices, the indicatingdevice requiring the most frequent advancement being that whoseadvancing mecha nism and actuating device are associated with the coinreceiving device constructed to receive the coins of the lowestdenomination.

4. In a savings-bank, a casing having three coin receiving slots ofdifferent sizes to receive respectively coins of three differentdenominations, a perpetual calendar comprising three independentlyoperating wheels, one with month indicia thereon, one with tens digitsdate indicia thereon, and one with units digits date indicia thereon,said indicia being selectively visible through an opening in saidcasing, advancing mechanism associated with each wheel, and an actuatingdevice associated with each coin receiving slot to be operated by theinsertion of a coin therein and independently mechanically connectedwith one of said advancing mechanisms, said wheels being thusrespectively advanced as a perpetual calendar by the periodicalinsertion of coins of the proper denominations in the respective slots,the month wheel being associated with that advancing mechanism andactuating device which are associated with the slot sized to receiveoperatively the coins of the highest denominatlon exclusively, the tensdigits date wheel being associated with that advancing mechanism andactuating device which are associated with the slot sized to receiveoperatively the coins of the next highest denomination exclusively, andthe units digits date wheel being associated with that advancingmechanism and actuatin device which are associated with the slot sizedto receive operatively the coins of the lowest denomination.

5. In combination, a housing, a partition therein forming a depositcompartment, a

coin guide leading into said compartment, means for locking and unlockinsaid compartment, a shaft mounted on t e opposite side of saidpartition, a wheel mounted on said shaft and havin indicia thereonarranged to be displayed through an opening in said housing, said wheelhaving ratchet means thereon, and a sprin pressed reciprocating pawlenga ing sai ratchet means and having a part isposed in proximity tosaid coin receiving guide so as to be actu- In witness whereof, Ihei'eunto subscribe my name this ninth day of January, A."D. 15 .1915.

ZENO M. SPEER.

\Vitnesses F. J. OKONESKI, LEO. E. BURKE.

